Clean Eating Challenge

Why not kick off the Holidays with some clean eating! Nothing better than enjoying a delicious dish of cottage cheese instead of pie, right?

My friend from High School is very active in health and fitness as she’s a Team Beachbody Coach. If you remember my Brazil Butt Lift Challenge back in April, she was the coach of that. She’s now starting a 10-Day Clean Eating Challenge through her Facebook page that will take us from today up until Black Friday! With the recipes, menu and shopping list already done for you, there’s no excuse to NOT take part in a healthy lifestyle. It takes the guesswork out and leaves you feeling better inside and out. Kevin and I do eat very well on the norm, but anything that helps me not have to PLAN…I’m in!

Our shopping trip was no bigger than usual as we had a lot of the items already – mostly the condiment types of items – as well as chicken and salmon already in the freezer. Stocking the freezer during good sales is THE way to go.

The challenge allows you make substitutions based on your own needs…so I did decide to sub such things are cottage cheese in place of the protein shake and almonds instead of walnuts. Here was this weeks haul filled with all things good for us! I want to give major props to the Applegate Turkey Bacon. I do NOT like bacon, at, all. I have tried turkey bacon once and it literally smelled and tasted like wet dog. I figured why not give it one more shot – this stuff is seriously a winner. I won’t say I LOVE it, but it’s definitely something I could handle.

Sunday morning was filled with prep to get ready for the week ahead. After making pancakes (hey, a girl’s gotta get in her last bit of bad food!) I started in with prep. I decided to bake the bacon (ha) on a cooling rack inside a pan so that the house and stove didn’t get covered in grease and smoke! Right after the bacon was done, we roasted almonds. I typically buy raw almonds from BJ’s since they’re cheaper and roast them myself – these came out SO tasty. A little later on in the day I cooked up some chicken tenders which will be for dinner Monday and Tuesday. Doing this easy prep makes the week ahead not seem as stressful.

Later in the day, I made our lunches for Monday and did any remaining prep necessary such as taking some Ezekial bread out of the freezer to thaw for breakfast.

I eat lunch later in the day, so my snacks both happened prior to Lunch. Kevin started breakfast this morning and forgot we were starting this – so our sandwiches were deconstructed a bit. As long as it gets in us, does it matter how pretty it is? I think not.

Tuesday:

Breakfast / Melon and Yogurt (this will certainly NOT tide me over for more than5 minutes so I will be adding more food to adjust for my caloric needs)

AM Snack / Piece of Fruit

Lunch / Turkey Avocado Wrap on Whole Wheat Tortilla

PM Snack / Almond Butter and Celery Sticks

Dinner / Grilled Salmon with Ginger Rice (this will be substituted for Wednesday’s dinner since Kevin has class – no one wants their lunchroom to smell like fish). WednesdayDinner: Chicken Tacos with Beans and Quinoia.

This week may be a little difficult since I am going home for my Baby Shower – I WILL be eating a few things clearly not on the menu but my mom is stocking up on healthy foods for us anyway.

On a side note… this weekend Kevin and my Monster Mother-in-Law wanted to head to a winery nearby so I was the third wheel. I don’t miss wine as much as I miss beer so it wasn’t unbearable.